Climate change.

For some time now I’ve been noticing the climate change in different parts of the world…now that I’ve joined GoY, this has become even clearer as I read about a very wet summer in Britain and an unexpected Indian summer in November in Hungary, and I remember how unusually cold it got this past week in Houston, with temperatures reaching 38 F (around 6 C I think) on Saturday November 15th. When I visited my parents in June, the weather was unusually dry, oh it rained occassionally it even thunder-stormed, but nothing like what the rainy season usually is. And they told me that March, typically a scorching hot dry month had been cooler and wetter than they ever remembered it.

All of this – each event taken by itself – would seem to be within the variation that is to be expected within each region but nevertheless, it makes me uneasy. There isn’t too much we can do, obviously, and worrying about it seems counterproductive BUT I think we should at least be AWARE of the changes…the weather is changing, and has been for several years and not to be like Henny Penny saying the sky is falling, the sky is falling, but if we haven’t taken notice of it, we need to.

If the glaciers continue to melt it will mean the seas will rise. Maybe that’s why there was so much rain this year. Certainly the Gulf of Mexico is much warmer, which contributes to stronger and deadlier hurricanes – no need to remember Ike here, how could I forget it?!

This quote from the novel “Jurassic Park” by Michael Crichton sums it up for me: “My point is that life on earth can take care of itself. In the thinking of a human being, a hundred years is a long time. A hundred years ago we didn’t have cars and airplanes and computers and vaccines…It was a whole different world. But to the earth, a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can’t imagine its slow and powerful rhythms and we haven’t got the humility to try. We have been residents here for a blink of an eye. If we are gone tomorrow the earth will not miss us. And we very well might be gone, Hammond said, huffing.
-Yes, Malcolm said. -We might.
-So what are you saying? We shouldn’t care about the environment?
-No, of course not.
- Then what?
Malcolm coughed, and stared into the distance. – Let’s be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. WE are in jeopardy. We haven’t got the power to destroy the planet-or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.”

Comments

Hey I like this blog and everything you say I agree with you.Your eyes and my eyes are both wide open to it all,
but we need the rest of them to see it too. I guess everyone are too busy being a me me me. That is why I love the outdoors and love my piece of earth so much I appreciate it alright. I am doing my bit hope others are doing the same and make the most of the little time we have on this precious Earth.

Thank you Michaella and Clarice! It's nice to know I'm not the only one worrying about this...it aggravates me when people say there is no such thing as global warming! But of course in Houston they're usually working for the big oil companies...argh!

Just saw in the paper this morning: "Six consecutive named storms - Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike - struck the US mainland, something that had not been seen in recorded history. Bertha spun about for 17 days, making it the longest lived storm in July. Rain-heavy Fay was the only storm to hit one stae, Florida - four times...A record three major storms smacked Cuba..."

We need to be good stewards of our resources no matter what the weather is like, and not waste as much. We need to take care of the environment, but realize it is more complex than just what happens to us locally. With the technology we have now, we are getting a clearer idea of what causes the weather patterns, but we still don't have the full picture and cannot control the weather.

Our global climate is cyclical, there are natural times of heating and cooling. I have heard the topic of climate change discussed by some people older than I am, and they mentioned that in the 60's or 70's that people were getting worked up about the imminent ice age that was coming. I don't know much about that time period to know how much of an issue it was.

Just thinking about controlling the weather, (which I am sure someone somewhere is doing research on), I hope we never get to where we CAN control the weather. Hurricanes, floods, wild fires, volcanic eruptions, etc are truly natural events. They may interrupt our lives or destroy what we have built, but they have some benefit to the natural world, such as distributing seeds or removing the forest undergrowth to make way for new plants. The earth was designed to take care of itself. If anyone truly had control of the global climate, what would be the end result?

I can remember talk of a coming ice age in the 60s and 70s.
I remember the sea freezing in Swansea in the 80s and people were then convinced of a coming ice age.
What happened to it ? Did it change it's mind ?

Hywel, a coming ice age? Mmmm I had never heard of that! But I have seen on Discovery channel a program about something they called the "Little Ice Age" which hit Europe very hard sometime in...can't remember now whether it was the late nineteenth century or earlier...and also the "year without a summer" where it snowed in July!! and they attributed this to a volcanic eruption that sent ash and other particles into the atmosphere...

I agree with you Gardengem that the weather can't really be controlled...I don't think it would be wise to do it either...

No Michaella, I didn't put the lines there..they just appeared..maybe the computer didn't like my quote! =)

Oooo excellent blog. I agree with all points. Up here in Alaska I've been watching as the ice recedes and glaciers disappear. One I hiked up 8 years ago is now a hike to get to. We had a whole town along the ocean collapse into the water when the ice shelf holding it in place melted out from under it. All things definately happening. I agree that there is nothing better for us to do than tend to ourselves and allow ourselves to adapt. I'm sure most people I talk to would rather discredit all claims than really accept that things are changing and maybe they should change too. We'll see where it all takes us. Smoke and mirrors.....lol. The best we can do is tend our gardens, keeping an eye on good old nature and exhibit adaptability.